File:Map of Italy in 1400c (14590314919).jpg

Identifier: italyfromdanteto1919cott (find matches)
Title: Italy from Dante to Tasso (1300-1600) : its political history as viewed from the standpoints of the chief cities, with descriptions of important episodes and personalities and of the art and literature of the three centuries
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Cotterill, H. B. (Henry Bernard), b. 1846
Subjects: Cities and towns
Publisher: New York : Frederick A. Stokes Co
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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no) the great Sala del MaggiorConsiglio in the Doges Palace was begun, and in 1309 thefirst sitting of the Grand Council took place in it. This Sala,which was enlarged to its present vast dimensions about 1340,needed special supports, and it was for this purpose that thearcades, with their strong columns, were constructed (thoseon the south side dating from about 1309, and those on theside of the Piazzetta being of about 1340). The architect ofthese arcades wishing to ornament the spaces above andbetween the arches (spaces that in Byzantine architecturewere often decorated with marble carvings let into the wall)had the happy inspiration to adopt a beautiful design thathe found in the windows of the Gothic Frari church—anexcised quatrefoil set in a circle. This tracery (traforo, per-foration), combined with the newly evolved pointed arch,formed the main characteristic of that 15th-century VenetianGothic with which we are all familiar, and of which so manybeautiful examples exist. 201
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D.M. = Ducato Milanese (Duchy of Gian Galeazzo Visconti) PART II IL QUATTROCENTO HISTORICAL OUTLINE DURING the Quattrocento the principal nations ofEurope assumed definite, if not final, forms, butItaly still remained a political chaos; and to followthe mazy dance of its multitudinous atoms is especially diffi-cult in the case of this century, during which their love andhate—to use the metaphor of Bmpedocles—seem to havebecome more intense, and their attractions, repulsions, com-binations, and divulsions more varied and incessant than ever.^ In this chapter I shall attempt to weave together the moreimportant events, passing from one city or state to anothersomewhat abruptly, but, I hope, without breaking threads. First let us glance at the general state of things at thebeginning of the century. In Rome all is stagnation, lethargy,desolation. The Great Schism (1378-1417) has become seem-ingly irremediable. Neapolitan Boniface IX is Roman Pope,his Spanish rival, with the (afterwards

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